Alcohol Use Disorders: A Developmental Science Approach to Etiology

Alcohol Use Disorders takes a life-span/developmental approach to understanding the etiologic processes that heighten risk or resilience factors for alcohol use disorders (AUD). Contemporary understanding benefits from thirty years of longitudinal studies that were specifically designed to assess pre-onset origins, predictors of onset, and outcomes through early adulthood. The overriding theme of the volume is that the origins and expression of AUD are best understood within the context of developmental processes and dynamic systems organization and change. Such dynamic systems give rise to diverse pathways that are characterized by multi-finality and equi-finality due to the exchanges among genes, epigenetic processes, and the complexities of the individual organism's experiential world. For some individuals, these dynamic processes lead to risk cumulative or cascade effects that embody adverse childhood experiences that exacerbate risk, predict early onset drinking (or smoking), and are highly likely to lead to AUD during the transitions to adolescence and emerging adulthood. In other cases, protective factors within or outside of the individual's immediate family enable embodiment of normative stress regulatory systems and neural networks that support resilience and prevention of AUD and other addictive behaviors.

Hiram E. Fitzgerald is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement at Michigan State University. He has been associated with the Michigan Longitudinal Study for 30 years. His major areas of research include the study of infant and family development in community contexts, the impact of fathers on early child development, 0-5 age boys and risk, the etiology of alcoholism, implementation of systemic community models of organizational process and change, and broad issues related to the scholarship of engagement.

Leon I. Puttler is a clinical psychologist working in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. He is the Project Director of the Michigan Longitudinal Study where he has worked for 22 years. Current research interests include the development of addictions with an emphasis on risk factors associated with its development, resilience in deviating from expected pathways, and the effects of recovery status of parental alcohol problems on the functioning of children and their parents; Child sexual abuse; Psychotherapy with children, adults, couples, and families.